Variety of ways to play troll, and sure you can place yourself into magic lvl 6, but it would hinder your ability for military unless you are capable of successfully using SS. But it also takes some time in order to do that, best with an alliance and some safety for awhile to farm.

Most times, Trolls are best for OOP and go military first up to lvl 7 to 8, then go mining and then whatever you choose afterwards. But if you are going magic first to level 6, then go mining and then SS for military, not worth attempting to even get any military because it would be too expensive, better to steal military. Otherwise, you are kind of worthless on the battlefield until late era.

Yeah, Troll have nice AOTD army(s). But it would cost you quite a bit on AOTD yourself and maintaining a strength level against an opponent whom doesn't use it themselves and usually relies on other mages to AoTD for them.

I mean, i have seen it done before, it just it took them a long time in order to make it happen, a lot of mages to do that and continue ahead when attacking.

For path, I normally go military 6 first to survive the oop wars, then magic 6, then mining.

Self AOTD capability is essential for a troll because you want your army to be able to operate outside the magic range of your casters, and you don't want to have to wait for a mage to cast AOTD, especially if you are casting AOTD multiple times as part of a series of battles against a single target.

The only time I see trolls fail to get magic six is when they have to nerf their own sciences and get mining before magic in order to save the kingdom from an oop threat.

Magic is absolutely not essential for trolls, if you can get it it's nice to have but by no means a must have. The only way it feasible to even get magic is if you have complete free farm at the start, because it puts you so far behind where you should be, because you're delaying mining sci for a very long time.